


A Stranger on the Rooftop

by Cantatrice18



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Acts of Kindness, Childhood, Fluff, Gen, Light Angst, PWP without Porn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:09:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26217667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cantatrice18/pseuds/Cantatrice18
Summary: Nine-year-old Adrianne Avenicci senses a disturbance at night, and climbs up to the rooftop to investigate. Once there, she finds a mysterious stranger in need of her help.
Kudos: 5





	A Stranger on the Rooftop

She could hear something on the roof. She knew it was there. Her 9-year-old ears were sharp, honed from hours spent listening for an approaching parent’s footstep. Adrianne knew how to sense a person’s presence, and someone was on the roof. 

In any other room, she would have had no recourse, but rather been forced to live with the knowledge of an intruder without doing anything about it. But this was her bedroom and, more importantly, her bedroom’s window. She was as familiar with the acrobatics required to mount the rooftop as any self-respecting child of Whiterun, having spent many an hour curled up on the thatch with a book of adventure stories. It was the work of a moment to slip silently from her bed and tiptoe to the window, then to lever herself out of it and into a standing position. From her perch she could just see over the rooftop, and her keen eyes spied a telltale dark shape that most certainly wasn’t part of the cottage’s architecture. 

For a moment, Adrianne considered being frightened, but the figure was far from monstrous. It was the size of a human, curled up into a ball, with snow falling fast upon its body. It was this last bit that prompted Adrianne to make the final scramble onto the rooftop and approach the figure directly. Whether thief or murderer, beggar or queen of all Skyrim, no one deserved to be left out in the cold. 

The figure scrambled upright as Adrianne approached, and the girl was able to get her first good look at the nocturnal visitor: a grey-skinned female of the race known as “dunmer”, with striking blue eyes and a wary expression on her face. She looked young, perhaps late teens or early twenties, and the apprehension in her gaze made her seem even more innocent. Adrianne took an immediate liking to the woman. She could feel in her bones that this woman would never hurt her, and knew with utmost certainty that here was someone she could help. Reaching out a hand, Adrianne met the dunmer’s eyes. 

“Won’t you come in, out of the cold?”

The dunmer stared at her as though she’d spoken in tongues. “Come…in?” she queried softly.

Her voice sent shivers down Adrianne’s spine, but the girl’s hand did not waver. “Yes. It’s far too cold out here. Come in. You must be hungry, too.”

The dunmer’s eyes dimmed and she looked away. “Hungry…yes.”

Adrianne inched further onto the roof, reaching out all the while, until finally she stood inches from the stranger. “Come,” she repeated. “Be warm. Be safe.”

The dunmer’s shoulders sagged with exhaustion. “Oh, you trusting child,” she murmured. There was a strange mournfulness to her tone, but when she looked up her gaze was clear. “I accept,” she told Adrianne solemnly, taking the girl’s outstretched hand. “Lead on.”

Carefully, Adrianne led the way back down onto the windowsill, then into the room with a small thump, her heart beating fast all the while. She knew her parents would be horrified at the thought of her welcoming a stranger into her bedroom at night, but she didn’t care. This woman needed her, she could feel it even as the elf landed silently beside her, hood still dusted with snow. Adrianne crept to the door and checked to make sure it was tightly shut before turning to the stranger. “I have an apple in my nightstand. It’s yours if you want it. Here,” she crossed to the aforementioned stand and retrieved the bit of fruit, offering it to the woman with both hands. “It’s a good one. I’ve been saving it all day.”

“You should have it, then,” the woman protested in her soft voice. 

Adrianne shook her head. “I want you to enjoy it. And please, sit down.”

The woman hesitated a moment longer. Then suddenly the apple was gone from Adrianne’s hands, though the girl had seen little more than a flash of movement. The woman glided silently to the chair in the corner and curled herself onto it, knees drawn up to her narrow chest as she bit into the apple. A tiny sound escaped her lips, and Adrianne grinned. “Good, isn’t it? Straight from the farms in the south.”

The stranger nodded. “Thank you,” she murmured. “You are kind.”

Adrianne shrugged off the compliment. “What’s your name?” she asked, then immediately regretted it when she saw the woman stiffen. “You don’t have to tell me, it’s ok,” she backtracked hurriedly. “I’m Adrianne. Adrianne Avenicci. My father is second steward, up at Dragonsreach. You probably know of him. He’ll be first steward soon. My mother stays home most days – she isn’t well, you see. She’s the daughter of a blacksmith, which is what I want to be, to make swords and shields for the great warriors. I’d rather be a warrior myself, but my father won’t allow it. He says it isn’t fitting for a girl of my station, whatever that means…”

She trailed off. The stranger was looking at her, blue eyes unreadable, and she felt suddenly self-conscious. “I don’t suppose you really care about any of that,” Adrianne muttered, embarrassed.

The strange woman shook her head. “On the contrary, I’m always happy to listen.”

“Truly?” Adrianne asked, hardly daring to believe it. When the stranger nodded, she launched into speech, detailing her hopes and dreams for the future, as well as how hard life had become now that her mother was ill most of the time. Through it all, the dunmer woman listened solemnly. When Adrianne had finally run out of things to say, the woman set down her apple core and stood. Adrianne remained frozen in place as the woman approached her and knelt. Cool arms wrapped around Adrianne’s shoulders and waist as the dunmer drew her into an embrace. Adrianne felt her muscles relax, her body give in to the comfort of the hug. “Sweet girl,” the dunmer murmured. “Life hasn’t been easy for you, has it?”

“I’m alright,” Adrianne whispered.

“Of course you are. You’re a war maiden.”

The woman released Adrianne and sat back on her heels. Adrianne felt the loss of the stranger’s arms and shivered as the cold winter air struck her. “But you should be in bed at this hour,” the woman exclaimed ruefully. 

“So should you,” Adrianne pointed out with a vain attempt at boldness. The truth was that all her fire had been extinguished the moment she’d felt the dunmer’s embrace. 

The woman smiled and stood, leading Adrianne to the child-sized bed in the corner and helping her in. “Wait,” Adrianne pleaded as the woman turned away. “Please. Don’t go.”

The woman froze, then slowly turned back. “Please,” Adrianne repeated. “Stay the night. It’s warm here, and, and…”

She couldn’t finish, but the woman seemed to understand. Perching on the edge of the bed, the dunmer ran a hand through Adrianne’s long brown hair. “Sleep, little one. Close your eyes. You’re safe with me.”

Against Adrianne’s will, her eyelids began to flutter closed. Sleep, which ought to have come hours earlier, enveloped her like a fast-moving mist. Her last memory was of the dunmer’s voice murmuring softly above her.

She awoke to find sunlight streaming through her window, and her room empty. All traces of the dunmer were gone, even the apple core. Adrianne shifted in bed and felt something odd between her fingers. Looking down, she saw that she held a scrap of paper. With trembling hands, she unfolded the note and saw a single word written in shimmering ink:

“Karliah”

The word winked up at her for a handful of seconds, then disappeared. Adrianne gasped and flipped the paper over, as though she expected the writing to have just fallen through somehow, but the scrap was empty of words. Slowly, Adrianne lay back in bed, staring at the rafters high above. 

Karliah. It must be the dunmer’s name. It was a beautiful name, and it fit her somehow. Adrianne inhaled deeply, trying to sense the woman’s presence on the air, but the woman—Karliah—was gone. An odd mixture of peace and loss warred within Adrianne’s chest. She could still remember the serenity of Karliah’s embrace, and it pained her to know that she would probably never see the dunmer again. Closing her eyes, she offered a brief but fervent prayer to Mara for the woman’s safety. As the prayer concluded, Adrianne allowed a few tears to escape her eyes. She couldn’t explain why, but somehow she knew with absolute certainty that life would never be quite the same again.


End file.
